Web Extra!A few hours before their showdown against New Trier at the Schaumburg Supersectional, the OPRF baseball players were an extremely focused bunch practicing on their home field, in uniform, before embarking on their "business trip" to Alexian Field. Unfortunately, the Trevians were the ones who closed the deal during their 9-5 victory over OPRF, which earned the New Trier a berth in the Elite Eight of the Class AA IHSA State tournament.

Tactical officers pulled over a white van in the 3300 block of Roosevelt Road that reportedly matched the description of the van used in an alleged car burglary in the parking lot of the Jewel, 7036 Roosevelt Road, the afternoon of May 29. William Sykes, 29, of the 3300 block of West 19th Street, James L. Bass, of the 1900 block of South Homan, and Ladina L. Moore, 33, of the 3300 block of West 19th Street, were arrested after being identified by a victim as the ones who broke out the window of his car with a screwdriver.

In announcing its new contract with educators, signed last month, Oak Park and River Forest High School said teachers would get on average 4 percent raises in each of the five years of the new contract. However, individual raises vary greatly. Some teachers' raises will average closer to 10 percent each year, according to a Wednesday Journal analysis. The school looks to hire new teachers with a master's degree and five years' experience.

Traveling back to the 1940s is as easy as taking a short walk down Roosevelt Road. Oak Park resident Robert Nava and his partner James Perino made time travel possible by opening The Depot American Diner (5840 W. Roosevelt Road) this past January. Fashioned in the mold of 1940s diners like the one pictured in Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks"-a replica of the painting happens to be perched on the bathroom wall-the diner serves up all the 1940s favorites.

The Devil is coming to Oak Park, and he's taking the bus. He arrives on Friday, June 8, at 10 a.m. unless the traffic's bad, and he'll be parked outside 834 Lake St. until noon. Naturally, he's after our children. "Get 'em while they're young," he's always said. And the kids will no doubt come running, because the Devil's ride is a cool-looking, 45-foot bus with a high-def TV inside.

Barry Greenwald, former District 200 Board of Education president, admitted recently that he and Susan Bridge, superintendent/principal at OPRF, often saw eye to eye-literally. At a farewell reception for Dr. Bridge last Saturday at Oak Park and River Forest High School, Greenwald said his friendship with Bridge was strong enough to withstand teasing each other about their relatively short statures.

It's something. It ain't nothing. But what exactly is that moment when fifth graders are ready to move on to sixth grade? Oak Park elementary schools have rightly decided it is not graduation. That rite properly comes at the close of eighth grade. But, as our kids prepare this week to depart the schools that took them by the hand from kindergarten to the quasi-independence, absolute tween-ism of grade five, it is assuredly a leave-taking of childhood.

District 97 will hire a treasurer to take over duties of the now defunct Cicero Township Treasurer's Office. The office was officially dissolved after the April 17 referendum passed in the Oak Park, Cicero and Berwyn elementary school districts. Dist. 97, however, was able to withdraw from the office outright earlier in the year through a resolution.

There's no question that the Oak Park village board waited too long under Illinois law to appoint a replacement for the trustee seat vacated by Martha Brock in January. Not that it matters. "Better late than never" seems to be the prevailing legal opinion. The village board is scheduled to meet in closed session Wednesday night to interview several candidates and discuss their qualifications.